One of two known American Ebola victims, missionary Nancy Writebol wasn't looking to abandon her overseas work. But Jeremy Writebol believes his 59-year-old mother can yield a greater good from her impending return to the United States amid West Africa's worst-ever outbreak of the often-deadly virus.
The attention focused on her case, the younger Writebol said, "might help develop a cure and resources to help those who are suffering. I am sure hopeful for that."
A Liberian government official has confirmed that a medical evacuation team is scheduled early Tuesday to fly Nancy Writebol back to the United States, where she will receive treatment at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital alongside one of her mission partners, Dr. Kent Brantly, who was admitted Saturday.
The American cases make headlines as dozens of African heads of state converge on Washington for the Monday opening of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, a three-day gathering hosted by President Barack Obama. Among the stated purposes: discussing how to help African nations overcome systemic challenges, including disease.
Brantly and Writebol contracted Ebola after working on the same medical mission team treating victims of the virus around Monrovia, Liberia. More than 1,300 people have been stricken, killing at least 729 of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Ebola has no vaccine or antidote. Contracted through close contact with bodily fluid and blood - as opposed to an airborne virus like influenza or the common cold - Ebola causes hemorrhagic fever that kills at least 60 percent of the people it infects in Africa, where substandard health care makes it easier to spread the virus and harder to treat it. Yet medical experts say recovery prospects are much greater at modern hospitals that follow strict controls for infection control.
Emory, where Brantly already is quarantined, boasts one of the nation's most sophisticated infectious disease units. Patients are sealed off from anyone not in protective gear. Lab tests are conducted inside the unit, ensuring that viruses don't leave the quarantined area. Family members see and communicate with patients through barriers.
Brantly's wife released a statement Sunday saying she had gotten to see her husband, a physician with the international relief group Samaritan's Purse.
"Our family is rejoicing over Kent's safe arrival, and we are confident that he is receiving the very best care," Amber Brantly said.
Writebol and her husband, David, had been in Liberia since August 2013, sent there by the Christian organization SIM USA and sponsored by their home congregation at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"They take the Great Commission literally," said their pastor, the Rev. John Munro, referring to the instruction from Jesus Christ to "make disciples of all nations."
At the hospital where Brantly treated patients, Nancy Writebol worked as a hygienist whose role included decontaminating those entering or leaving the Ebola treatment area. Munro said David Writebol fulfilled administrative and technical duties.
A few weeks before she was diagnosed, Jeremy Writebol said, a doctor visited the Monrovia hospital where she worked and praised the decontamination procedures as the best he'd seen. Jeremy Writebol said she was "really pleased by knowing that" and never thought she would be infected, despite her proximity to the virus.
David and Nancy Writebol have engaged in foreign missions for 15 years, spending five years in Ecuador and nine years in Zambia, where Munro said they worked in a home for widows and orphans.
Munro recalled speaking with the couple when the Ebola outbreak began.
"We weren't telling them to come back; we were just willing to help them come back," he said. "They said, `The work isn't finished, and it must continue.'"
After talking with his father Sunday, the younger Writebol said it's clear his mother "is still suffering," but said the family remains optimistic.
Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, also in Atlanta, say they've gotten some blowback for bringing Ebola cases to an American hospital. But Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director, emphasized again Sunday that there is no threat to the public in the United States.
"We know how to control it: hospital infection control and stopping it at the source in Africa," Frieden said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
Frieden's agency is ramping up its effort to stem Ebola's spread. He promised "50 staff on the ground" in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone "in the next 30 days."
Some airlines that serve those nations have suspended flights, while international groups, including the Peace Corps, have evacuated some or all of their representatives in the region.
But the Writebols, their pastor predicted, won't be away from the stricken land for any longer than they have to be.
"They knew that Liberia was a tough assignment," he said, comparing their vocation to the Bible's stories of leper colonies. "Followers of Christ went into those colonies, knowing they would die," Munro said. "I certainly wouldn't judge them if they didn't go back, but I don't think this will deter them."
